Current espionage by China in the UK
Approved Chinese Super embassy by Starmer
The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and various organs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have conducted surveillance and espionage in the United Kingdom, according to top UK national security officials such as the head of its domestic intelligence agency MI5. UK officials, including experts at its MI5, have long been fearful that the PRC could shut down businesses in the nation with cyberattacks and spy equipment embedded in computer and telecommunications equipment.
According to Robert Hannigan, former Director of the Government Communications Headquarters, Chinese hackers have engaged in economic espionage against British universities and engineering companies, on behalf of the Chinese government
MI5 has reportedly monitored Chinese espionage against Rio Tinto Group computers.
In February 2021, the United Kingdom expelled three Ministry of State Security (MSS) officers who had been posing as journalists with Chinese media agencies.
In 2021, an advanced persistent threat group associated with the Hubei State Security Department in Wuhan, APT31, targeted the emails of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China members and 43 United Kingdom parliamentary accounts.
In September 2023, British media reported that a British diplomat at the British embassy in Beijing discovered a listening device in the teapot that the Chinese officials gave to the diplomat as a farewell gift. After returning to Britain, the diplomat found the hidden bug inside the teapot when it was accidentally dropped and smashed on the floor.
In 2023 it has been revealed that an individual known as "H6" or Yang Tengbo, a Chinese spy, has been at the center of a controversy involving the UK government and the royal family. H6 had connections with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and was invited to his birthday celebration in 2020. A royal aide, Dominic Hampshire, had given H6 permission to act on Andrew's behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.
The Home Office, under then-Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, barred H6 from entering the UK in 2023 due to engagement in "covert and deceptive activity" on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A specialized tribunal in London upheld this decision, ruling that Braverman was justified in deeming H6 a risk to national security.
A judge ruled the Chinese spy allegedly had an unusual degree of trust from the royal. Housing Minister, Jim McMahon, stated that revealing H6's identity is a matter for the courts, despite growing demand among MPs for more details. Former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, plans to pose an Urgent Question in parliament regarding the United Front Work Department, which is reportedly linked to H6. Sir Iain Duncan Smith has also warned there are many more like H6 in the UK. The Chinese embassy in London has denied the allegations, accusing some UK individuals of fabricating "spy" narratives to discredit China. Prince Andrew has ceased all contact with H6 following government concerns, while there are warnings of potential additional espionage activities in the UK. Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, emphasized the need to balance economic collaboration with China while addressing national security threats. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, has raised his concerns of the challenge China poses.
In addition to concerns about espionage, MI5 is also worried about China covertly gaining influence. In January 2022, BBC reported that MI5 issued a rare warning to UK Parliament Members (MPs), alleging that a Chinese agent, Christine Ching Kui Lee, had infiltrated the Parliament to interfere in UK politics on behalf of the Chinese government. According to the warning, Lee "established links" with current and aspiring MPs on behalf of the CCP and provided donations to politicians, funded by foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong. In December 2024, Christine Lee lost a legal challenge against MI5. She claimed that the security alert issued against her was politically motivated and violated her human rights. However, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal unanimously rejected her case, with all three judges affirming that MI5 had acted for "legitimate reasons."
In January 2024, China's Ministry of State Security announced the arrest of a man with triple citizenship, accused of spying for the UK's MI6. The man, surnamed Huang, had allegedly gathered state secrets on repeated trips to China. In March of the same year, the UK and the U.S. jointly sanctioned Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology, a front company of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, and affiliated individuals for cyber intrusions targeting critical infrastructure and the UK Electoral Commission. The espionage theme continued in April 2024, when two individuals were charged in the UK under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly spying on behalf of China. A month later, in May, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed a cyberattack linked to China that compromised payroll data, including personal and financial details of defence personnel.
In November 2025, MI5 warned that Chinese intelligence operatives had been using LinkedIn to contact UK parliamentarians and other influential figures through seemingly legitimate recruiter profiles, such as those attributed to "Amanda Qiu" and "Shirly Shen," to gather information and cultivate long-term relationships; the agency said these actors conducted large-scale outreach via professional-networking sites, sometimes shifting conversations to encrypted platforms, and targeted MPs, think-tank analysts, consultants, and government officials. Fake Emails and Gmail accounts aimed at academicians and politicians were also reportedly part of such activities. Impersonators claimed to have been working for an 'IBM research center' and Google's 'AI Division'.
In October 2025, the proposed acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group by China-linked RedBird Capital Partners sparked controversy after reports linked its chair, John Thornton, to Cai Qi, a senior Chinese Communist Party official, raising concerns over potential foreign influence in UK media, though RedBird denied any Chinese involvement.
politburo, in Beijing last year.
2025 spying scandal
In October 2025 the Director of Public Prosecutions controversially dropped charges under the Official Secrets Act 1911 against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry. Cash has been a Parliamentary researcher for Alicia Kearns MP. He had also been director of the Conservative MP's China Research Group. Investigators suspected that intelligence from the pair about Westminster had been passed to Cai Qi.
What were Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry charged with in China spy case?
Christopher Berry (left) and Christopher Cash (right)
Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were accused of collecting insider information about UK politics and government policy, and passing it to a Chinese intelligence agent, who then forwarded it to Cai Qi, one of the most senior politicians in China. Cai is often referred to as President Xi Jinping's right-hand man.
Both Mr Cash and Mr Berry completely denied the charge under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case against the pair last month after deciding the evidence did not show China was a threat to national security.
The two men met while teaching in China.
Mr Berry stayed behind, but Mr Cash, whose other love was politics, got a job in the House of Commons - first as a researcher and then as the director of the China Research Group, working closely with MPs like Tom Tugendhat, Alicia Kearns and Neil O'Brien.
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In a statement released through his solicitor, Mr Cash told the BBC: "I have, for a long time, been concerned by the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the United Kingdom and, prior to these false allegations, was working to inform Parliamentarians and the public about those risks."
Mr Cash and Mr Berry would talk and exchange messages between Westminster and China, according to the first of three witness statements by the deputy national security adviser Matt Collins to the CPS - released by the government on Wednesday.
For example, according to Mr Collins' statement, Mr Cash told Mr Berry in June 2022 that he thought Jeremy Hunt would pull out of the Tory leadership race.
In July 2022, he allegedly sent a voice note saying that Tugendhat would almost certainly get a job in Rishi Sunak's cabinet. Both these pieces of information ended up in reports that Mr Berry submitted to a man called "Alex", who the prosecution said was a Chinese intelligence agent.
In his statement, Mr Cash said he was aware "a small amount of the information" he was sending to Mr Berry was being passed on. But he thought Mr Berry was working for "a strategic advisory company" helping clients "invest in the UK".
Mr Cash said the information he gave Mr Berry was publicly available or "just political gossip that formed part of the everyday Westminster rumour mill".
In a statement given to BBC News via his lawyer on Thursday, Mr Berry gives a similar account.
He said his reports were "provided to a Chinese company which I believed had clients wishing to develop trading links with the UK".
Those reports "contained no classified information", Mr Berry said, and "concerned economic and commercial issues widely discussed in the UK at the time and drew on information freely in the public domain, together with political conjecture, much of which proved to be inaccurate".
Some of the information was not for passing on. In the note to Mr Berry about Hunt, Mr Cash wrote: "v v confidential (defo don't share with your new employer)". Despite that, it was included in one of Mr Berry's reports, according to one of Mr Collins' statements.
Mr Cash and Mr Berry communicated using encrypted messaging apps.
Mr Collins' first statement says that, after one exchange in December 2022, Mr Berry told "Alex" that the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly did not think sanctions would be effective in blocking imports from Xinjiang, the province where there are human rights abuses of the Uyghur population.
There were also a series of exchanges about meetings between Tugendhat, Kearns and Taiwanese defence officials, according to Mr Collins.
All of these exchanges ended up in a series of reports that Mr Berry submitted to "Alex" with titles like "Taiwan-perception-within-parliament" and "Import_of_Products_of Forced_Labour_from Xinjiang".
Those reports then ended up with Cai Qi, and he seems to have been so pleased about the information that, in July 2022, Mr Berry met Cai. Mr Cash sent him a message saying: "You're in spy territory now."
According to Mr Berry, Cai asked "specific questions about each MP within the Conservative leadership election one-by-one", Mr Collins said in his statement.
Cai Qi, seen waving, is sometimes referred to as President Xi's right-hand man
then comes 2026
In May 2026, former UK immigration officer, Chi Leung "Peter" Wai, and his contact Chung Biu "Bill" Yuen were found guilty of working for Chinese intelligence as part of a "shadow policing operation" against Hong Kong democracy activists in the UK.
Two men first in British history to be found guilty of spying for China
Chi Leung Wai and Chung Biu Yuen convicted over surveillance of dissidents in ‘shadow policing’ operation
A UK Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official based in London have been found guilty of spying for China and surveilling dissidents through a “shadow policing” operation.
Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, also known as Bill, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of assisting a foreign intelligence service, making them the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China.
Wai, who worked for Border Force at Heathrow airport and volunteered as a City of London special constable, was also found guilty of misconduct in public office in relation to unauthorised searches of Home Office databases.
The two men, who had denied the charges, were found guilty by majority verdicts. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb will sentence the men, who are both dual Chinese and British nationals, at a later date.
Yuen, who was accused of giving Wai the targets to surveil, looked down as the verdict was heard. Wai stared ahead.
After 23 hours and 38 minutes of deliberation, jurors could not reach a verdict on charges against the men of foreign interference, a separate offence under the National Security Act. The prosecution said it would not seek a retrial.
A third accused man, 37-year-old former Royal Marine Matthew Trickett, who was charged under the National Security Act alongside Yuen and Wai in May 2024, was found dead in a park near his home in Maidenhead, Berkshire, a week after being bailed.
Prosecutors had asked the court to remand Trickett in custody for his own protection after he tried to take his own life in a police cell following his arrest. He told custody sergeants he would kill himself when he was released.
A nine-week trial heard that Wai gathered intelligence on the orders of Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, which was said to be an extension in the UK of the Hong Kong government.
The court heard that the targets included Nathan Law, an exiled politician who led the student protest movement in Hong Kong. Law was the subject of multiple spying operations and has had a £100,000 bounty put on his head by the Chinese authorities.
The jury was told that Wai infiltrated Hong Kong pro-democracy groups and sought to gather information on British politicians including the former Conservative cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith and the Labour peer Helena Kennedy.
The spying ring was uncovered when police thwarted an apparent attempt to kidnap Monica Kwong, a personal assistant who had fled Hong Kong in 2023 after being accused of defrauding her employer, Tina Zhou, out of £16m.
Wai was arrested on 1 May 2024 in Kwong’s flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, along with Trickett, then a serving Home Office immigration officer, as well as Zhou and two former Hong Kong police officers who had flown to London to confront the personal assistant over the alleged fraud.
The group had sought to trick their way into Kwong’s home by posing as electricians who had come to repair a fuse, the court heard. Trickett poured bottled water on the floor to simulate a fake flood as part of one failed ruse to get Kwong out of the flat.
When the group subsequently broke in to Kwong’s home, police who had been bugging them were waiting to take the suspects into custody.
Wai, who was known to associates as Fatboy, denied he had been providing intelligence to Chinese authorities for years.
As a teenager he joined the Royal Navy in an engineering role, and he was placed on attachment with the Royal Marines before joining the Royal Navy police. He was also an instructor in the traditional Chinese martial art of lion dancing and his troupe had performed at 10 Downing Street.
He claimed that a chat group on which he was accused of sharing intelligence was to do with a company run by his lion dancing master and that he was simply passing on information about UK life. But jurors were shown messages between Yuen and Wai that the prosecution said showed them discussing plans to target activists, who were referred to as “cockroaches”.
In response to the convictions, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said: “The activities carried out by these men, on behalf of China, are an infringement of our sovereignty and will never be tolerated.
“We will continue to hold China to account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people in our country at risk. That is why the Foreign Office will summon the Chinese Ambassador to make it clear activity like this was, and will always be, unacceptable on UK soil.
“This case proves the strength of the powers we have to protect us from hostile activity carried out by foreign states and these convictions should send a clear message – there will be serious consequences for anyone who seeks to undermine our security.”
A Chinese embassy spokesperson said: “The facts of this case clearly show that this is nothing but a political move of abusing the law and manipulating the judicial process by the UK side. Its sole purpose is to embolden those anti-China elements who are hiding in the UK and bent on destablising Hong Kong”
Chi Leung Wai and Chung Biu Yuen convicted over surveillance of dissidents in ‘shadow policing’ operation
A UK Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official based in London have been found guilty of spying for China and surveilling dissidents through a “shadow policing” operation.
Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, also known as Bill, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of assisting a foreign intelligence service, making them the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China.
Wai, who worked for Border Force at Heathrow airport and volunteered as a City of London special constable, was also found guilty of misconduct in public office in relation to unauthorised searches of Home Office databases.
The two men, who had denied the charges, were found guilty by majority verdicts. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb will sentence the men, who are both dual Chinese and British nationals, at a later date.
Yuen, who was accused of giving Wai the targets to surveil, looked down as the verdict was heard. Wai stared ahead.
After 23 hours and 38 minutes of deliberation, jurors could not reach a verdict on charges against the men of foreign interference, a separate offence under the National Security Act. The prosecution said it would not seek a retrial.
A third accused man, 37-year-old former Royal Marine Matthew Trickett, who was charged under the National Security Act alongside Yuen and Wai in May 2024, was found dead in a park near his home in Maidenhead, Berkshire, a week after being bailed.
Prosecutors had asked the court to remand Trickett in custody for his own protection after he tried to take his own life in a police cell following his arrest. He told custody sergeants he would kill himself when he was released.
A nine-week trial heard that Wai gathered intelligence on the orders of Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, which was said to be an extension in the UK of the Hong Kong government.
The court heard that the targets included Nathan Law, an exiled politician who led the student protest movement in Hong Kong. Law was the subject of multiple spying operations and has had a £100,000 bounty put on his head by the Chinese authorities.
The jury was told that Wai infiltrated Hong Kong pro-democracy groups and sought to gather information on British politicians including the former Conservative cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith and the Labour peer Helena Kennedy.
The spying ring was uncovered when police thwarted an apparent attempt to kidnap Monica Kwong, a personal assistant who had fled Hong Kong in 2023 after being accused of defrauding her employer, Tina Zhou, out of £16m.
Wai was arrested on 1 May 2024 in Kwong’s flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, along with Trickett, then a serving Home Office immigration officer, as well as Zhou and two former Hong Kong police officers who had flown to London to confront the personal assistant over the alleged fraud.
The group had sought to trick their way into Kwong’s home by posing as electricians who had come to repair a fuse, the court heard. Trickett poured bottled water on the floor to simulate a fake flood as part of one failed ruse to get Kwong out of the flat.
When the group subsequently broke in to Kwong’s home, police who had been bugging them were waiting to take the suspects into custody.
Wai, who was known to associates as Fatboy, denied he had been providing intelligence to Chinese authorities for years.
As a teenager he joined the Royal Navy in an engineering role, and he was placed on attachment with the Royal Marines before joining the Royal Navy police. He was also an instructor in the traditional Chinese martial art of lion dancing and his troupe had performed at 10 Downing Street.
He claimed that a chat group on which he was accused of sharing intelligence was to do with a company run by his lion dancing master and that he was simply passing on information about UK life. But jurors were shown messages between Yuen and Wai that the prosecution said showed them discussing plans to target activists, who were referred to as “cockroaches”.
In response to the convictions, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said: “The activities carried out by these men, on behalf of China, are an infringement of our sovereignty and will never be tolerated.
“We will continue to hold China to account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people in our country at risk. That is why the Foreign Office will summon the Chinese Ambassador to make it clear activity like this was, and will always be, unacceptable on UK soil.
“This case proves the strength of the powers we have to protect us from hostile activity carried out by foreign states and these convictions should send a clear message – there will be serious consequences for anyone who seeks to undermine our security.”
A Chinese embassy spokesperson said: “The facts of this case clearly show that this is nothing but a political move of abusing the law and manipulating the judicial process by the UK side. Its sole purpose is to embolden those anti-China elements who are hiding in the UK and bent on destablising Hong Kong”
